You are here: Home » News » Women’s League Reads

Women’s League Reads

You are invited to join Women’s League Reads, a worldwide conversation about books of interest to today’s Jewish women. Women’s League Reads is a moderated online discussion group, via Google Groups, for members of Women’s League in which everyone is invited to post comments, ask questions and make observations about the book.

We are pleased to announce Women’s League Reads’ winter book and author, Odessa, Odessa by Barbara Artson. Women’s League Reads will hold an author interview Thursday, January 17 at 8:30 p.m., Eastern time.

The novel portrays several generations of a Jewish family, beginning with two brothers whose childhood and young adult years are marked by the pre-WWI pogroms. One is a devout rabbi whose family finally emigrates and adjusts to life in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. The struggling women of the family are modeled after the author’s own grandmother and mother. The other brother shuns his father’s traditions, and is banished from the family, to follow the path of Marxism and Zionism. Assimilation and social change bring about a thoroughly American third generation in the form of a professional woman who quests the missing part of her family and its stories. The sorrows of Odessa and the recognizable voices of sparkling characters are authentic and often touching.

The author is a retired psychoanalyst who lives in San Francisco. She holds a doctorate degree in psychology and B.A. and M.A. degrees in English Literature, and has many published essays, reviews, and journal articles to her credit. Many of you know Barbara’s son, Rabbi Bradley S. Artson, who is Dean and Vice President of Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles.

Membership in Women’s League Reads is open only to members in good standing of Women’s League-affiliated sisterhoods or to individual members who have paid dues directly to Women’s League. You may subscribe to by contacting Lois Silverman, Internet Services Chair, at lsilverman@wlcj.org, with your e-mail address, sisterhood name/town/state, or individual member information, and thereby join the online group for book news and discussions.

Listen to our conversation with If All the Seas Were Ink author Ilana Kurshan here:

Conversations with the chosen authors and scholars:

To listen to our conversation with Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, author of Waking Lions, click here.
To listen to our conversation with Dara Horn, author of Eternal Life, click here.
To listen to our conversation with Rachel Kadish, author of The Weight of Ink, click here.
To listen to our conversation with Jennifer S. Brown, author of Modern Girls, click here.
To listen to our conversation with Deborah Tannen, author of You’re the Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Women’s Friendships, click here.
To listen to our conversation with Betsy Lerner, author of The Bridge Ladies: A Memoir, click here.
To listen to our inter-generational conversation with Erica Perl, author of When Life Gives You OJ, click here.
To listen to our cooking lesson with Mollie Katzen, author of The Moosewood Cookbook, click here.
To listen to our conversation with Lauren Belfer, author of And After the Fire, click here.
To listen to our conversation with Sarit Yishai-Levi, author of The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, click here.
To listen to our conversation with Joy Ladin, author of Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders, click here.
To listen to our conversation with Phyllis Chesler, author of An American Bride in Kabul, click here.
To listen to our conversation with Gina Nahai, author of The Luminous Heart of Jonah S, click here.
To listen to our interactive, inter-generational program for Sydney Taylor’s All of a Kind Family, click here.

To join Women’s League Reads, click here. Include your name, email, sisterhood, or notice that you are an individual member of Women’s League (not a member of a sisterhood). In addition to reading together, we look forward to sharing some exciting benefits of participation in this group.